We studied the effects of various oils used to trap sand flies on the recovery of virus from infected adult Phlebotomus papatasi. Both Rift Valley fever and sandfly fever Sicilian viruses were readily recovered from virus-inoculated specimens held at 26 degrees C on mineral, olive or castor oil-soaked sheets for up to 12 h. However, after 50 h on oil-soaked paper, significantly greater titers w...

BACKGROUND Phlebotomus perniciosus is the main vector in the western Mediterranean area of the protozoan parasite Leishmania infantum, the causative agent of canine and human visceral leishmaniases. Infected dogs serve as a reservoir of the disease, and therefore measuring the exposure of dogs to sand fly bites is important for estimating the risk of L. infantum transmission. In bitten hosts, s...

BACKGROUND Visceral leishmaniasis is the world' second largest vector-borne parasitic killer and a neglected tropical disease, prevalent in poor communities. Long-lasting insecticidal nets (LNs) are a low cost proven vector intervention method for malaria control; however, their effectiveness against visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is unknown. This study quantified the effect of LNs on exposure to ...

BACKGROUND Phlebotomus tobbi is a vector of Leishmania infantum, and P. sergenti is a vector of Leishmania tropica. Le. infantum and Le. tropica typically cause visceral or cutaneous leishmaniasis, respectively, but Le. infantum strains transmitted by P. tobbi can cause cutaneous disease. To better understand the components and possible implications of sand fly saliva in leishmaniasis, the tran...

This study examined the spatial distribution and seasonal fluctuations of population densities of phlebotomine sand flies and was designed to obtain baseline data on the population trends of Phlebotomus argentipes, P. papatasi, and Sergentomyia spp. in a visceral leishmaniasis endemic area of Bihar, India. Beginning on 28 October 2009 and through 20 October 2010, 63 CDC light traps were evenly ...

Four types of commercial mosquito control traps, the Mosquito Magnet Pro (MMP), the Sentinel 360 (S360), the BG-Sentinel (BGS), and the Mega-Catch Ultra (MCU), were compared with a standard Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) light trap for efficacy in collecting phlebotomine sand flies (Diptera: Psychodidae) in a small farming village in the Nile River Valley 10 km north of Aswan,...

BACKGROUND Leishmania parasites are transmitted in the presence of sand fly saliva. Together with the parasite, the sand fly injects biologically active salivary components that favorably change the environment at the feeding site. Exposure to bites or to salivary proteins results in immunity specific to these components. Mice immunized with Phlebotomus papatasi salivary gland homogenate (SGH) ...

The Amazon forest is being exploited for timber production. The harvest removes trees, used by sand flies as resting sites, and decreases the canopy, used as refuges by some hosts. The present study evaluated the impact of the timber harvest, the abundance of sand flies, and their trypanosomatid infection rates before and after selective logging. The study was accomplished in terra-firme produc...

Catches of mosquitoes and sand flies in CO, traps baited with three different lures and an unbaited control were compared. The lures examined were carbon dioxide, carbon dioxide plus l-octen-3-ol, and carbon dioxide plus human hair in ethanol. Studies using a 4 x 4 Latin square design, with 3 sets of 4 consecutive trap nights, were conducted between August 6 and September 10, 2007. The study si...